4 Must-Dos if You Want to Save Money on Groceries

Groceries have become really expensive -- which probably isn't news to you if you pay attention to the cash coming out of your bank account. In 2022, average annual prices for food at home (meaning groceries) were up 11.4% from the prior year, and prices have continued to climb this year as well, albeit at a slower pace. 

You don't have to run up high credit card bills at the grocery store, even though food costs a lot more now than it did just a few short years ago. You can implement four effective techniques to keep your costs down so you have more money for other goals. Here's what they are. 

1. Make a meal plan

Making a meal plan is one of the best ways to reduce your grocery spending, because you can ensure that:

• You only buy the ingredients you need to make meals 
• You have scheduled meals for each day so you won't be tempted to eat out

Meal planning is simple and quick. You can just sit down at the start of the week and write down what you want to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My husband and I started doing this years ago and we ended up cutting our grocery bill by about 25% because we weren't buying wasted ingredients or scrambling to figure out what we wanted to eat and ending up with takeout. 

2. Shop the sales flyers

Most grocery stores have sales flyers, which show you what items are on sale each week. If you can plan your meals around those discounted items, you can reduce your grocery spending dramatically. 

For example, if pork is on sale at your local store for $1 off per pound and going for $3.29, why not make pulled pork for one dinner and pork tacos for another? You could end up spending a lot less at the store doing that than if you paid full price for ground beef and got stuck spending $6 a pound for the meat instead of $3.29 for the pork. 

You can find your local sales flier online, and you should pull them up each week when outlining your meal plans for the week. 

3. Clip coupons

Using coupons is another great way to save on groceries. A recent study showed that consumers could save an average of $316 per year at the grocery store by using coupons. 

Coupons can be found in all different places. You can get them from the Sunday paper, print them from manufacturer websites, buy them online, or get them from your local store's website. There are even coupon apps. There's no reason not to do a quick search for coupons for the products you plan to buy before  you go to the store. 

4. Keep track of sale cycles 

Finally, keep track of how often things go on sale and stock up on items when they're on discount, so you don't have to pay full price. For example, let's say you have a favorite brand of pasta sauce that is regularly $3.50 and goes on sale every six weeks for $2. You can find out that schedule by making a note of when things you buy go on sale, as stores often follow predictable schedules. 

If you use one jar of pasta sauce a week and you buy six of them on sale for $2, you won't ever have to pay that $3.50. You could save $7.50 on that item alone (the $1.50 extra you'd have paid for the other five weeks when they weren't on sale). You can do this with any item you buy regularly to reap significant savings.

These steps are pretty simple, but they can make a big impact on your finances. Give them a try and see how much you can cut your spending at the grocery store.